Veterinary team nurses police K-9 wounded by gunshot

April 14, 2014

Updated 1:55 p.m.

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Anaheim police dog Bruno, who was shot in the line of duty last month, is examined by his surgeon, Dr. Maria Fahie, as the hospital owner, Dr. Steven Dunbar, watches from behind Tuesday at Yorba Regional Animal Hospital in Anaheim.
JEBB HARRIS
,
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Dr. Steve Dunbar watches Anaheim police K-9 Bruno, who is recovering from a gunshot wound at Yorba Regional Animal Hospital in Anaheim. Bruno's lower jaw is pinned to an external fixator. The bullet went through his jaw and remains in his torso.
JEBB HARRIS
,
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Schoolchildren from around Orange County have sent good wishes to Bruno at Yorba Regional Animal Hospital in Anaheim.
JEBB HARRIS
,
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Dr. Marie Fahie watches Anaheim police K-9 Bruno, on whom she did the emergency 3 1/2-hour surgery after he was shot. His lower jaw is pinned to an external fixator. The bullet went through his jaw and remains in his torso. Fahie, who has treated numerous K-9 gunshot wounds, has previously written a paper on the subject.
JEBB HARRIS
,
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Anaheim police dog Bruno relaxes with an ear rub at Yorba Regional Animal Hospital in Anaheim where he is recovering from a gunshot wound. Bruno's lower jaw is pinned to an external fixator. The bullet went through his jaw and remains in his torso.
JEBB HARRIS
,
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Veterinary technician assistant Peter Kummerfeldt, left, flushes and cleans the mouth of Anaheim police K-9 Bruno at Yorba Regional Animal Hospital in Anaheim, where he is recovering from a gunshot wound. The staff finds Bruno to be friendly and easy to work with.
JEBB HARRIS
,
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Anaheim police K-9 Bruno is recovering from a gunshot wound at Yorba Regional Animal Hospital in Anaheim. Bruno's lower jaw is pinned to an external fixator. The bullet went through his jaw and remains in his torso. Bruno is watching someone holding his favorite toy, a Mickey Mouse doll, as Dr. Steve Dunbar looks on.
JEBB HARRIS
,
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Anaheim police K-9 Bruno relaxes in his kennel with an Anaheim police towel at Yorba Regional Animal Hospital in Anaheim, where he is recovering from a gunshot wound. The bullet went through his jaw and remains in his torso.
JEBB HARRIS
,
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Dr. Steve Dunbar and surgeon Dr. Marie Fahie, who did the emergency 3 1/2-hour operation on Bruno, examine the police dog. His lower jaw is pinned to an external fixator. The bullet went through his jaw and remains in his torso.
JEBB HARRIS
,
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

At Yorba Regional Animal Hospital in Anaheim Hills, Dr. Gary Tateyama, left, and veterinary technician Allison Barajas perform surgery on April 1. Anaheim police K-9 Bruno was treated for a gunshot wound in one of these surgery bays after he was shot in the mouth during a chase in March.
JEBB HARRIS
, FILE PHOTOS: JEBB HARRIS, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Anaheim police dog Bruno, who was shot in the line of duty last month, is examined by his surgeon, Dr. Maria Fahie, as the hospital owner, Dr. Steven Dunbar, watches from behind Tuesday at Yorba Regional Animal Hospital in Anaheim.
JEBB HARRIS
,
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The hospital called in a mastiff owner so their dogs could donate fresh blood to Bruno as the vets worked to save his life.

More than 30 police officers from the Anaheim Police Department and other agencies came to the hospital to support Bruno and his handler, R.J. Young.

It took Fahie and three other veterinary staffers about 31/2 hours to repair the damage.

Nearly a month later, an external fixator, a device that looks like old-school orthodontic headgear, still holds Bruno’s jaw together with pins as he continues to recover at the hospital.

Yorba Regional Animal Hospital operates 24 hours a day and has an array of specialists to deal with almost any medical emergency. But the hospital wasn’t prepared for the community’s intense interest in Bruno’s recovery. News vans flocked to the parking lot and reports of his shooting spread nationally.

Dr. Steve Dunbar, founder and owner of Yorba Regional Animal Hospital, has tried to answer questions about Bruno’s recovery through social media.

Bruno was the hospital’s first case of a police dog that had been shot, but the facility has treated others that have been stabbed or have accidentally ingested drugs on the job, Dunbar said.

Fahie got into veterinary medicine because she’s always had animals in her life. She said her house is more like a farm, with dogs, cats, horses and a sub-Saharan desert tortoise named Bob.

“I like being able to fix things,” she said about being an animal surgeon.

Fahie is also a professor of small animal surgery at the Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona.

She estimates she has treated fewer than 100 gunshots in her career.

Fahie insists that her role in fixing Bruno was the easy part. She said the veterinary technicians who have assisted Bruno by hand-feeding him, helping him drink from a syringe and walking him deserve more credit for his recovery.

“They’re really almost more important, because if you stitch (animals) back together and you don’t do the rest of the care, that surgery can’t work,” she said.

THE HOSPITAL

When Dunbar opened the 16,000-square-foot animal hospital and grooming and boarding complex in 2006, he intended to never lock the doors to the public.

“To me it’s kind of hard to call yourself an animal hospital and only be here from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.,” he said.

The staff consists of 14 veterinarians and 50 veterinary technicians and nurses who see about 20 venomous snake bites during the summer, along with injuries from collisions with cars, accidental poisonings and broken bones throughout the year. The hospital will treat almost anything that can get through the front doors, including exotic reptiles, llamas and Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs – but not horses.

Dunbar, 59, has been a Yorba Linda resident since 1986 and takes pride in serving local law enforcement. The K-9 officers who visit Yorba Regional receive free first-aid kits and CPR training to ensure their partners make it to the hospital alive after being injured.

“Their dogs are subject to high risk of trauma and high risk of injury, so those are things that we provide them so they can take care of them in the field,” Dunbar said.

By keeping police dogs in top shape, it safeguards officers and the public, he said. “I think it saves a lot of lives.”

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